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Best Practices for School Improvement

Amy Dherit

American College of Education

EL5703: School Improvement

Dr. Jacqueline O’Mara

June 14, 2021

Gaffney Middle School’s SIP showed some areas where there are areas that need to be

addressed in order to meet the needs of all the students. The areas of the greatest weakness

appeared to affect the students that are associated with being Students of Poverty subgroup,

Black or African American subgroup, and the Disabled subgroup. Three of my colleagues,

Casey, an 8th grade Pre-Algebra and Algebra I teacher, Karen, a 7th grade Regular Math 7 and

Pre-Algebra teacher, and Candace, a 7th grade ELA 7 grade and Honors 7th grade teachers

and myself, a 7th grade Science teacher discussed the needs of the current SIP for Gaffney

Middle School. We agreed upon the areas that provided opportunities for improvement were

using proven strategies across the three grade levels in literacy, math, and using assessments

to plan for instructional needs of the students. Due the majority of the school identifying in at

least one of the subgroups, all teachers would need to be able to use specific strategies, while

continuing to differentiate based on student ability. This would require that all teachers work

together to provide the necessary components to build fluency in both reading and writing and

higher achievement in problem-solving and reasoning in math. The professional development

for teachers will cover the ways in which these strategies will provide the same equitable

opportunities for all students while maintaining the necessary rigor to achieve significant student

growth.

Shared Vision and Mission

My colleagues and I worked together to create a shared vision of increasing student

achievement across the board, but making sure to provide the subgroups with a method that

targeted and supported continual practice and application. We felt this vision is attainable by

having all ELA teachers, across the three grades, be trained to use explicit instruction with the

same strategies to teach the writing components and integrate reading into the writing

instruction. Core teachers would be included in the training and also focus on using the same

strategies to integrate content reading and writing. We believe that all math teachers, also

across all three grade levels, use explicit instruction when focusing on shared problem solving

approaches and mnemonic devices. And we expect that all teachers of Gaffney Middle School

plan effective formative assessments that will provide well informed lessons to support or

remediate students' continued learning. Our mission for Gaffney Middle School, in partnership

with all stakeholders, is to ensure quality education by planning and using proven strategies to

promote an equitable opportunity for learning for all students, in a safe and culturally rich

supportive environment. My colleagues and I reached a consensus by determining the goals

that would enable the school to achieve the vision. The goals centered around all three grade

levels using consistent strategies that provided equitable opportunities for students and still

allowed teachers to differentiate by differing the rigor of the content to ensure students the

opportunity to grow, regardless of their ability level.

Explicit Writing Strategies in ELA

According to our 7th grade ELA team member, Candace, who teaches the regular 7th

grade ELA and she teaches 7th grade Honors ELA, Gaffney Middle’s students overall struggle

with writing. Due the majority of the school’s student population falling into the Students of

Poverty subgroup, these students come from homes that often lack educational support that a

student with much homework might need. So, the school’s philosophy is to limit the amount of

homework assigned and that 95% of the work be done at school. Based on this philosophy, our

team felt that teachers should use explicit instruction to use the Model-Practice Reflect

instructional model (Graham, S.et al., 2016) where teachers will use the same writing process

model and teachers will explicitly guide the instruction to teach the iterative process. This will

eliminate other models teachers are using in other ELA classes and content classes to provide

consistency across the board. Teachers will incorporate the modeling with I do, We do, You do

strategy to also ensure that each teacher is planning multiple opportunities for student

engagement and practice. Students will be able to keep their notes for the teacher-led

instruction in their Cornell notes, which they already have to use for the school-wide AVID

program. According to Graham et al., this direct instruction approach strategy will “help students

direct their thinking as writers” (Graham, S.et al., 2016 p.8) All three grade levels use the same

integrated interventions and explicit strategies for the five components of the Writing Process.

Students will complete the reflective piece of the instructional strategy of the Model-Practice

Reflect, in the reflected portion of the Cornell notes. Graham et al. also discusses the “positive

effects” (Graham, S.et al., 2016 p. 39) that integrated reading and writing instruction have when

they are taught in an integrated way. Differentiation will be implemented to provide the equitable

adjustment needed to meet the needs of each individual student. This will allow the teacher the

flexibility needed to meet with the students identified as students of subgroups that need small

group instruction. This small group instruction will continue to follow the I do, We do, You do to

promote students the guided instruction they will most likely need. It is important to remember

that students should continue to be challenged in regards to the text so that students “come in

contact with challenging vocabulary and sentence structures” (Denton et al., 2007 p. 33).

The team chose this strategy so that students would have a consistent opportunity to

apply these strategies. By eighth grade, students would have achieved proficiency on each of

the strategies, therefore be able to write to communicate ideas based on evidence better. Using

the same vocabulary and basic rubrics, students will have numerous opportunities to practice

and refine their skills. Teachers and interventionists will be able to provide research based

interventions for students who are entering the middle of the three year period or students with

specific learning disabilities. The discussion centered on how this strategy would positively

impact all children to reflect the subgroups identified in the school improvement plan. The group

concluded that all students, from intervention to Honors students would benefit from the same

direct and explicit instruction and that the text levels would provide the more advanced rigor.

This would also enable all regular education teachers the flexibility for differentiation by using

texts that are leveled for each tier of students while maintaining rigor in the classroom.

Explicit Problem Solving Strategies in Math

In regards to mathematical instruction, two team members who teach both at grade level

math classes in addition to Honor’s math classes believe the weakest area in mathematics is

students' ability to read and understand basic problem solving and then use the appropriate

steps to solve the problem. It was also mentioned that students struggle with vocabulary that

represents a quantitative relationship to the problem. Just like in ELA, explicit instruction will be

used to provide students with strategies such as common reflective questioning (Star, J. R. et

al., 2016) that can be used as anchor charts in all math classrooms, providing students with

opportunities to analyze the structure of completed problems and determine whether it is correct

or incorrect by using the correct vocabulary to explain their thinking (Star, J. R. et al., 2016).

Teachers would need to choose problems that correlated to the unit of study and offer a variety

of ways such problems could be solved, therefore, “teacher planning considered students’

mathematical content weaknesses and understanding of language and context” (Woodward, J.

et al., 2012 p. 10) would be essential. The last strategy is using an agreed upon mnemonic that

students can apply to solving and reasoning through word problems. “The mnemonic helps

students remember the steps to solving a word problem” (Powell & Hughes, 2011 p. 1). The

strategies mentioned provide the “frequent opportunities for students to reason with and talk

about mathematical concepts, procedures, and strategies using precise mathematical

language” (Star, J. R. et al., 2016 p. 7). The students ability to use the correct vocabulary to

discuss the application of problem solving is the core of their ability to fully understand

mathematics.

The team chose the above strategies to work together in a classroom that would

establish a continuity of the same expectations in each of the math classes over the three year

period, and provide enough practice with cognitive reasoning through multiple ways to analyze

mathematical problems and communicate effectively their understanding. The combination of

strategies, including the common mnemonic device, all foster the development of mathematical

thinking and communication.

Explicit Strategies to Guide Instruction

The last strategy that the team agreed on was the importance of using assessment data

gathered from during an instructional time or afterwards, to assess student understanding and

to be utilized to plan effective subsequent lessons. The group decided that professional

development would need to be implemented to provide all teachers with the same knowledge to

meet the instructional planning expectations. According to Graham, S. et al, “formative

assessment tools, such as exit slips and error analysis, allow teachers to regularly monitor

student progress” (Graham, S.et al., 2016 p.44). In order to know which students need further

instruction, a teacher must know what their students are retaining during instruction. The

research conducted by Black and Wiliam on formative assessments has identified conclusive

benefits formative assessments have on increasing students’ overall learning (Black & Wiliam,

2005). Professional development is necessary because according to Black and Wiliam,

“teachers (have) to think more carefully in framing comments on written work” (Black & Wiliam,

2005 p.7 )as well as formulating effective questioning that encourages students to engage in

communicating their understanding. Teachers will utilize Exit/Admit Tickets in Google Forms a

minimum of three times a week to collect data based on students' understanding. The data will

be used during departmental team planning to differentiate the lessons amongst the student

needs of each teacher.

The team chose to focus on developing an instructional strategy that teachers had to

plan for and use to reflect on the student learning. The teachers will collect and print their

information collected from students to reflect on and plan lessons that are geared to meet the

needs of each student in the classroom. This differentiation will also provide teachers the

needed information to be able to differentiate effectively in the class and thus, meet the needs of

the subgroups identified throughout the SIP. The team felt there needed to be some

accountability to ensure that everyone is adhering to expectations of increasing student overall

achievement.

Conclusion

In order to effectively analyze a SIP, it takes multiple persons with different perspectives.

It helped having teachers from different content classes to be able to interject their expertise of

instruction in the content subject. Although time did not allow for the inclusion of other necessary

educators such as guidance counselors , special education teachers, and an English Language

learner teacher, our group did try to settle on strategies that could be used in their specialized

classes as well. We also felt that professional development would be needed based on the

number of Pace Program teachers at our school. The formative assessment being mandatory

was also needed for accountability purposes since we anticipate there will be some reluctant

teachers when it comes to using the formative assessments to guide instructional planning.

Provided that all teachers incorporate the uniform components in ELA, Math and Core Content

classes, then student achievement should show a positive increase in scores. By adhering to

the mission and everyone be like minded, then all of Gaffney Middle School’s stakeholders will

benefit from the implementation of these strategies.

References

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2005). Changing Teaching through Formative Assessment: Research

and Practice.https://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/35337920.pdf.

Denton, C., Bryan, D., Wexler, J., Reed, D., & Vaughn, S. (2007). Effective Instruction for Middle

School Students with Reading Difficulties: © 2007 University of Texas System/Texas

Education Agency The Reading Teacher’s Sourcebook. Texas Education Agency. https://

www.meadowscenter.org/files/resources/ _RTS_Complete.pdf.

Graham, S., Fitzgerald, J., Friedrich, L. D., Greene, K., Kim, J. S., Olson, C., Bruch, J.,

Ferguson, J., Lyskawa, J., & Wulsin, C. S., Teaching Secondary Students to Write

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Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of

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2014/02/EBI-Brief- Template- Word-Problem-Mnemonics.pdf.

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McCallum, W. G., Porath, J., & Zbiek, R. M., Teaching strategies for improving algebra

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Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education

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Woodward, J., Beckmann, S., Driscoll, M., Franke, M., Herzig, P., Jitendra, A., Koedinger, K. R.,

& Ogbuehi, P., Improving mathematical problem solving in grades 4 through 8: A practice

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Retrieved from http:// ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications_reviews.aspx#pubsearch/